As announced this past weekend, Bellator MMA has booked the long-awaited trilogy fight between MMA legends and UFC Hall Of Famers Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock. According to Gracie, the reason he is coming out of retirement for that fight in particular is very simple — he doesn’t like Shamrock.
Royce Gracie spoke about the fight during Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour” at MMAFighting.com.
“I was like, yes!” said Gracie. “Because it’s Ken. It’s simple — I can’t stand the guy. Sorry. He’s not my friend. He’s not my enemy. I just don’t like the guy.”
Gracie famously defeated Shamrock via choke in the first ever UFC tournament back in 1993. The two would later fight in a rematch that due to the rules at the time, was ruled a mandatory draw. Ever since then, Shamrock has been campaigning for another rematch.
“For the last 22 years, the guy has been losing sleep,” Gracie said. “I don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t like me. I don’t like him. But for me, it’s just an opponent. Because I beat him before, he’s had that stuck in his throat.”
Shamrock has been extremely outspoken over the years about their second fight, claiming that if the current judging system were in place back then, he would have easily won a decision. According to Gracie, he’ll have the chance to prove that in February.
“I said sure,” he said. “Let’s finish this, man, I’m gonna beat him up one more time just to show the first time wasn’t a fluke. The second time he just sit on me for 30 minutes and put the crowd to sleep.”
Gracie went on to toss a couple of pre-fight insults at “The World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
“He talks a lot. He talks like he’s the best fighter ever in the history of MMA. He lost to me in less than a minute. Second fight, he laid down on top of me, held me down for 30 minutes, 36 minutes. And he claims he’s the best fighter ever. ‘The World’s most Dangerous Man.’ The most deadliest man? Yeah, right.”
Gracie concluded, “He’s chasing that win and I’m chasing to put an end to this. Maybe I’ll retire him now. If I can do it in 30 seconds, I’ll do it. But I don’t think it’ll be in 30 seconds. I’ll torture him first.”
Bellator 149 is scheduled for Friday, February 19th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
